Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Rosemary White Bean Soup

I am in full nesting mode around here. As of today, the baby is coming in 3 weeks, 6 days ... and that means I've got some cooking to do. (Even as I'm updating this, I'm boiling water for the two pans of baked ziti that will be saved for later meals.)

Tom calls it "doomsday prepping" --
while I call it 'good thinking' to be stockpiling meals and freezing just
about anything that moves and can be thawed and edible again, and
entering said meals into a spreadsheet so I can find them in easily in
the deep freezer or regular fridge-freezer. (And it fits perfectly with
my planning Virgo personality)So while I'm freezing most of this soup for now, I had enough left over that just wouldn't fit in my freezer bags for my lunch (funny how that happens). It's rustic Tuscan at its best - simple and lets the flavors of the beans shine.

Rosemary
White Bean Soup

Adapted from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

Ingredients

1
pound dried white cannellini beans

4
cups sliced yellow onions (3 onions)

1/4
cup olive oil

2
garlic cloves, minced

½
cup dry sherry

1
large branch fresh rosemary (6 to 7 inches)

1
bay leaf

2
quarts vegetable/chicken stock

2
tsp kosher salt

1/2
tsp freshly ground black pepper

Drizzle
of good oil and/or crisped bacon/pancetta, optional

Preparation

In a medium
bowl, cover the beans with water by at least 1-inch and leave them in the
refrigerator for 6 hours or overnight. Drain.

In a large stockpot over low to medium
heat, sauté the onions with the olive oil until the onions are translucent, 10
to 15 minutes. Add the garlic and cook over low heat for 3 more minutes. Add
the dry sherry and cook until most of the moisture is gone, about 5-7 minutes.Wrap rosemary and bay leaf in cheesecloth
bundle and add to pot along with drained white beans and stock. Cover, bring to
a boil, and simmer for 60 to 90 minutes, until the beans are very soft. Remove
the rosemary branch and the bay leaf bundkle. Pass the soup through the
coarsest blade of a food mill, or place in the bowl of a food processor fitted
with a steel blade and pulse until coarsely pureed. Return the soup to the pot
to reheat and add salt and pepper, to taste.